"Stay behind me." I said and raised my arm to block an incoming punch.

"Sure thing." Jess replied and retreated a few feet.

"Oh no, you don't!" one of the Army Ant's mumbled and 2 of them broke past me while the others took it upon themselves to keep my attention away from my partner.

All in all, I was a decent enough fighter (at least I thought so) but my style of combat heavily relied on linking me and my enemy's mind via Thought so I could preemptively counter all of their strategies and even basic intended actions. Inconveniently I did not have access to my Powers mid-Possession.

As it stood I was only able to semi-effectively block two of my identical assailants, while the third one had free reign to unleash hell on my unprotected back. Even if I really wanted to, I could not focus on Jess right now. I had to get out of this situation ASAP. The only saving grace of this whole affair was Army Ant's enhanced durability. Even though I was struck and kicked all over, the effect on me was minimal. That is to say, it still hurt, but more like I was punched by a drunken alcoholic after a few too many rounds on his late bar crawl, and not three people who could each crush a brick in their hands.

.

As I maneuvered towards the wall to get into a more advantageous position I heard a loud crack. My head whipped in the direction of the sound and I saw one Army Ant fall to her knees, clutching her left shoulder. Jess had slammed one of her attackers against the wall again, this time from the side instead of the back.

Just as I was about to refocus on my own battle I noticed that the blows had stopped coming. I turned back just in time to see all 3 of my attackers look at Jess, venom in their eyes.

"Fuck! Aaaaahhhh! How...... you broke this one's arm! How did you do that?!" The one that was attacked tried to lift her damaged limb but recoiled in pain. "I can jump out of a fifth-story window and land on all 12 of my knees without a scratch! What is happening today?"

The three near me faced my way again. "You! You did something to me!" One of them grabbed me by the neck and lifted me with one hand. "I was pulling my punches because I didn't want to damage my body, but if you can take away Powers you are too dangerous for me to hold back." She lifted her other arm, ready for a precise blow. "I really hope I don't give myself a concussion with this."

I grabbed at my neck, struggling to breathe. She definitely didn't lose her enhanced strength. But her theory was wrong. I wasn't able to take away Powers. Meddlers in general were rare, those who could block Powers especially. The odds of someone having been born with both Possession and Power Suppression were so infinitesimally small that it wasn't even worth considering in theory.

But it was strange. My puppet clearly still had the enhanced durability, or else the super-powered beat down I received would have left her with nary a bone unbroken. Did all of them lose theirs or was it just the one that fell victim to Jess? I glanced over in her direction.

Her wand was lying on the ground, the hand that had been holding it was now bloody. The other, uninjured Army Ant that had pursued Jess was standing below a small hole in the wall that definitely hadn't been there before, and next to Jess was a broken piece of wood.

She must've tried to knock out that Army Ant the same way she did the other one, but the hero, thinking quick, had rammed her fist into the wall after she was lifted up, broke off a piece of it, and chucked it at Jess' wand. Now Witchling had to decide between keeping up the bluff that the wand was necessary for her to use her magic or throwing caution to the wind and losing the advantage of being underestimated. That was a particular tightrope I had to walk a lot myself back when I was a hero.

But I had to worry about myself for now. Time to test some theories. As fast as I could I pushed my hands flat against the wall behind me to get some much-needed stability and swung my foot against the knee of the Army Ant holding me up by the neck.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Aaaah! You..." But she couldn't finish that sentence. The blow had distracted her enough that I could deliver a sucker punch straight to her nose. I could feel and hear the bone cracking.

"Ahh, God dammit!" Army Ant cursed and stumbled backward.

"Not used to feeling pain, are you?" I said with a smirk and dashed to the side before the recovered hero could grab me.

"Well, I can't say I expected to be body-snatched today, but.....against villains strong enough to overcome my durability I do have precautions." she said, cracking her neck. "Not that that's what you're doing, but this situation is similar enough, don't you think?"

"Oh yeah?" Witchling threw in, still in a staredown with the Army Ant that de-wanded her, both waiting for the other to make the first move. "And what's that, pray tell? An anthill ya lot can flee to to lick your wounds and cry to the queen? Ya want some sugar for the trip? I'm sure I have a cube or two somewhere in here." Jess patted my bag that still hung around her waist.

"Hahaha, no." the hero opposite her responded with a joyous laugh. "But don't worry. You'll see." Immediately all 5 Army Ants, including the one with the limp arm, snatched a small vial from their sparsely equipped belts and downed the liquid in one gulp. Jess used the momentary distraction to dive for her wand and lifted the hero in front of her high in the air.

"Unless ya want this pretty body to end up with a broken arm too ya better retreat."

Her enemy just laughed. "Do it then." At the same time as Jess slammed her new hostage against the wall, I ran up to another of Army Ant's bodies, an unharmed one, and delivered another sucker punch. Pain radiated through my hand and I pulled back with a yelp. Jess was observing similar results for her attack. Just like the first time, the cape just stood up and dusted herself off.

"Finally, things are as they should be again. Well, mostly. Enough to deal with you two at least."

"What was the stuff ya bug brains drank? It can't be..."

"Armor Solution...." I finished Jess' sentence.

"Bingo." Army Ant said with a grin and clapped sarcastically. I quickly moved my hands down to my doll's gadget belt, but aside from an Incapacitator, it was empty. When I moved my head back upwards to meet her eyes she was holding an additional bottle between two fingers and slowly tilted it from side to side, taunting me. "I had the foresight to take this away from you while my hand was sitting smug and comfy around your neck. Can't afford to have a two-bit thief grab and stash something as valuable as this."

"There is no way in hell someone like you can casually afford 6 bottles of Armor Solution!" I spat.

Army Ant shook her head and sighed. "Where you're right, you're right. These damn Witches hike the price up constantly. This batch is from a personal friend of mine and it's heavily diluted. It won't last for more than 10 minutes. But that's a moot point, anyway. It's not like I'll need that long."

With that, she attacked.

I could see Jess grabbing one of her assailants with her magic and slamming her into the other one before I concentrated on my own fight. All I could do was try to dodge and weave out of the way of her strikes. If I could stall her until her potion ran out our chances would increase significantly. But that was easier said than done, especially when you are being assaulted from three directions.

Another loud crash grabbed my attention and I turned to look. Jess was lying on the ground, lip split open, and with a victorious Army Ant pressing her foot on her back. And to add insult to injury, it was the one with the broken arm too.

That momentary distraction proved to be my undoing. Army Ant grabbed my head and with the force of three super-powered heroes slammed it against the wall. It broke, my head now in the old abandoned bar. The world swam before my eyes, dizziness overtaking me. For just a moment I could've sworn I saw multiple shapes moving in the darkness until I was pulled back out after a minute or so.

"I'd say this is a decisive Game Over." she gloated, her face inches away from mine. I tried to fight back but I couldn't move. When she pulled back, I was able to see why. My arms had been glued to the wall with the Incapacitator. "Now, where is your real body?"

I opened my mouth to tell her to go fuck herself (which I guess she could actually do with 6 bodies, but that is neither here nor there) when her shoulder exploded. Or rather, something exploded on her shoulder, and despite the explosion being tiny the force of it knocked her on the floor.

"Who.....?" Army Ant started as every one of us looked in the direction of the explosion, but stopped when she saw who had intervened.

About fifteen feet away from the action stood a group of 6, maybe 8 small toy soldiers, drawing a large toy cannon on wheels behind them. Large compared to them, of course. One moved its arm up and then down again, causing its comrades to salute and pull on a string behind the cannon, firing another carefully aimed shot. This one knocked the one standing on top of Jess off of her and to the ground.

"What is even happening today?!" Army Ant groaned.

"My, oh my. How terribly unsophisticated, ganging up on some poor newbies 5 against 2. T'is not sporting I say. Not sporting indeed." I heard a familiar voice monologue as three people strode out of the bar.

Smooth Criminal was wearing his usual white suit, but a golden domino mask sat on his face beneath the monocle. Toy General, clad in his army commander costume, had a rather unsettling wooden nutcracker mask strapped to his face, while Slugger, casual as ever, was wearing a simple tank-top / jeans combo, the only non-casual feature being the bandana wrapped around the lower half of her face. She was also the only one of the three carrying a weapon, her trusty baseball bat resting on her shoulder.

I did not know what these clowns were doing here, but I don't think I had ever been more glad in my life to see three people I couldn't really stand.

"Now my dear compatriots, let's make this sordid affair a tad more even, shall we?"